In solo sims in the past I have created myself as either a prospect in an upcoming draft or MLB ready player as a FA and then simulated out the career slowly as an observer (sometimes controlling a particular team). I think it would be awesome if in a future OOTP version, there was a game mode designed for something like this. It would be a lot of work to create a game mode from the ground up, but this just seems like something that would bring a lot to the game overall.

I've been thinking about this idea since I saw this post and started my own "My Player" game. The difficulty would be having enough influence/interaction to make a game mode out of it. In MLB2k they had the advantage of the arcade type interactions to either swing the bat or determine the quality of a pitch. Just how you could do that to a sufficient degree to make the user feel that they are positively influencing their player's career within the excellent OOTP world engine is the challenge!

At as basic level as a pitcher you'd perhaps have the ability to try and throw a strike or a ball in an at-bat with maybe some knowledge of the batter's ability or strengths to help you make that call - or a catcher's signal?

As a batter you'd have the options to swing (power or placement?) or take pitches. Perhaps make decisions when running or stealing?

Fielding is one I am struggling with. There was a setting in MLB2k where the game skipped/simulated the game until you had a chance of being involved. In OOTP the same could I'm sure be done but how could you become "involved" in the play within the existing game engine?

Then there is the player creation and development. Would people buy into a steady career progression drafted into whatever team took you in the draft or would it have to be a No1. draft pick with your favoured team? Personally I would be fascinated to take my 18 year old avatar into an historical replay situation that had me starting in the early 80's.

Good performances could earn "progression points" to nudge forward player development. Bad performances or injuries would slow development.

There's possibly a game mode here but could it be sufficiently interesting?

This did exist as a sort of spin-off game called Inside the Park. I enjoyed it, but it really bumped up against the limitations of a sim-based game as opposed to an arcade style one.

For what it's worth, I did create a dynasty that I wrote about for a bit (you can search for Ricky Branch) that created a player and followed his individual career within the confines of the OOTP game. I enjoyed it immensely and the immersion was incredible.

I didn't think too much of Inside the Park. The main problems for me were:

1. The OOTP5 engine wasn't really set up to handle something like that. You'd get the AI calling you up, then sending you down, then calling you up, then sending you down. I think that problem would still exist today. Try playing as a minor league manager and you'll see what I mean with the AI shuttling players.

2. In a season you might have 600 PA as a regular player. When you don't have the visceral feeling of hitting a ball or running, it gets pretty dull to tap some variation of 'bunt' or 'swing away' 1800 times a season. For pitchers it's worse, since a SP faces what, about 1500 batters a year at least? It's too much. I think this kind of game mode would work better if you picked a general strategy game by game and it played through automatically.

If there were a way to get around those problems it would be a really great addition. Your player could even be part of an online league of some kind, which might run like PT and you're competing for playing time and wins against other human players.

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